Tracing Louis H. Ayme's Explorations in Oaxaca, México ... - Famsi

exception to this practice and may have destroyed at least some of these objects of
veneration.
It was recorded again by Manuel Martinez Gracida in 1883: he based his commentary
on the Relaciones and he may well have been the source of Ayme’s information about
Santa Maria since they quite probably became acquainted during Ayme’s residence in
Oaxaca in 1884-1885. That Ayme’s work in the Water Cave led to his nearly being
walled up alive inside it because of the hostility of the villagers to his trespassing deep
into this critical space may not have been recounted to anyone in Oaxaca, and as well,
his excavations and collecting in another cave, noted by Gracida as the "Grotto of the
Virgin" and as the "Altar Cave" by Ayme, also probably went unmentioned.
There may be a faint echo of these episodes in the 1958 publication Miahuatlán, un
Pueblo de México, by Basilio Rojas. He draws upon both the Relaciones and Gracida,
incorporating as well information about Americans investigating the possibility of
washing gold from the river at Santa Maria and trying to discover the actual dimensions
and sources of the Cave’s seemingly inexhaustible bounty. He concludes his
commentary on the caves and grottos of Santa Maria by noting that he knows of no
scientific survey or map of these features being either successfully conducted or
published, a situation which may still be an accurate reflection of the extent of
knowledge of these long noted, yet still poorly understood, natural wonders.
Drawing upon the resources of the Welte Institute also allowed me to learn more about
maps in both Oaxaca and México City. I was able to find several documents relating to
Santa Maria and Nazareno at various archives in Oaxaca. These are primarily
concerned with land disputes but also include two unpublished maps that will help me
fill in some of the history of these areas particularly important to my dissertation. And
finally, I was able to purchase several books not available in the States that are crucial
for my work on the Ayme ceramics.
Now, in 2002, I have returned from another trip to Oaxaca where I gave an invited paper
at the 5th Welte Symposium, the subject of which was Ayme’s surface collecting at
Monte Albán and its relation to his excavations at Nazareno. I was also able to confer
with several other scholars whose papers were connected in some ways to my own
work. It was on this trip that I was finally able to meet with Dr. Manuel Esparza who was
very kind in discussing avenues of approach to the time and society of Oaxaca when
Ayme was living there and collecting–he is probably the most knowledgeable scholar of
that period. His suggestions about records and research areas will be most useful
indeed in trying to understand the reality of Oaxacan attitudes to Pre-Columbian
objects, their study and collecting, over 100 years ago.
An especially important aspect of this trip was that I was able to make my fourth visit to
Santa Maria Coatlan, this time in the company of two Mexican ethnographers, Paola
Garcia Souza and Saul Millan. Their work at Los Huevas de San Mateo del Mar
resonates with mine at Santa Maria. This was the first time that I was able to go to the
village with colleagues who spoke both Spanish and English, something that was
extremely useful for more clearly understanding the unwritten history of the village and
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